San Francisco prosecutor fired after being accused of hiding evidence

Updated 5:17 pm, Thursday, December 7, 2017

A sign points to the District Attorney’s Office on the third floor of the San Francisco Hall of Justice.

A sign points to the District Attorney’s Office on the third floor of the San Francisco Hall of Justice.

Photo: Evan Sernoffsky / The Chronicle

San Francisco prosecutor fired after being accused of hiding evidence

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A San Francisco prosecutor has been fired after being accused of withholding evidence from the defense in four criminal cases, officials said Thursday.

Former Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Mains “no longer works here,” said Alex Bastian, a spokesman for the San Francisco district attorney’s office. He would not discuss the circumstances of the case, citing the confidentiality of personnel matters.

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After Adachi went public with the allegations in September, District Attorney George Gascón filed a complaint against Adachi with the State Bar, alleging that his rival violated a state code that requires disciplinary investigations to be confidential.

Adachi, though, said he had a First Amendment right to disclose the allegations, and had gone to the media only after trying to resolve the issue with Gascón. The district attorney’s office declined to comment about the complaint, which Adachi said had been dismissed.

Adachi said Mains withheld potentially exculpatory DNA evidence from the public defender’s office in two cases, and in two other cases didn’t turn over other forms of evidence, including police body-camera footage and witness interviews.

“I don’t rejoice in anyone losing their job, but this is a situation where there was a clear case this prosecutor had committed misconduct by withholding evidence in serious felony cases,” Adachi said Thursday.

In one case, Roderick Bass was charged with stealing a laptop in a residential burglary in January 2014. Bass’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Sangeeta Sinha, contended Bass only received the stolen property and didn’t commit the burglary.

The attorney wasn’t given DNA test results from a pair of gloves left at the crime scene until April of this year, even though the gloves were tested a year earlier, Adachi said. The DNA didn’t match Bass, who was convicted of receiving stolen property and sentenced to treatment in a court for military veterans.

A second case involved Charles Walker, who told police he acted in self-defense when he stabbed a woman. Crime-lab technicians tested his clothing in April 2016 and found Walker’s blood as well as the victim’s blood.

The defense said it did not learn of the DNA results until April 2017, when the case was presented in a preliminary hearing. Walker’s case is pending.

Mains was also accused of not turning over notes and witness interviews in the case of a homeless man accused of threatening women in a home he slept in front of. The defense attorney, Adachi said, found through her investigation that none of the complaining witnesses wanted to press charges.

In the fourth instance, a Superior Court judge threw out a conviction and granted a motion for a new trial in the case of Dominic Hayes, who was charged with domestic abuse this year.

Hayes’ attorney, Deputy Public Defender Niki Solis, said Mains didn’t hand over police body-camera footage that showed officers responding to the scene and doing interviews with the victim. Solis said she got the footage two days after the trial started.

In addition, Solis said Mains made comments during the trial about the defendant’s decision not to take the stand in his own defense. Such arguments are not allowed.

On Nov. 22, Judge Robert Foley granted Hayes a new trial, which is scheduled to begin Jan. 12.